


Potions, Perfume, and Apples

by ellywolf111



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Amortentia, Apples, Drapple (Harry Potter), F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Love Potion/Spell, Potions Class (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23266552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellywolf111/pseuds/ellywolf111
Summary: When two enemies brew Amortentia in class and smell scents all too familiar to each other, what will become of them? Will they face the feelings they obviously feel or will they try to shove them away?Excerpt:"I can't smell a thing. All I can smell is your perfume. What did you do, dump the whole bottle on yourself this morning?""I don't know what you're talking about Malfoy, the potion is perfect. I smell exactly what I smelled with the example batch: grass, parchment, and green apples." At this point, the class had gone quiet to hear the two of them squabble. "Besides, I was in such a rush this morning I didn't put on any perfume," she stated matter-of-factly, crossing her arms across her chest."You're lying. I can smell it from where I'm sitting." She was about to argue further when a realization suddenly donned on Hermione. She froze in her spot, staring at the potion in front of her.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 10
Kudos: 200





	Potions, Perfume, and Apples

Hermione stood in the very front of the crowd of students, eager to learn and prove herself as always. Professor Slughorn had just instructed Harry and Ron to grab their textbooks from the cabinet behind him before continuing on with his lesson. "Now, as I was saying, I've prepared a few concoctions this morning. Any ideas what these might be? Yes, Miss...?"

"Granger, sir," she replied, stepping up from the crowd. "That one there is Veritaserum. And that would be Polyjuice Potion. And that...is Amortentia! The most powerful love potion in the world. It's rumored to smell differently to each person, according to what attracts them. For example, I smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and... apples. Green apples." Hermione shook her head, trying to get rid of her rising blush, and stepped back.

Slughorn continued to explain how amortentia worked and how they should be careful with potentially dangerous potions. Hermione, in a very un-Hermione-like fashion, couldn't fully focus on the words. She was busy trying to place the smells that she was supposedly attracted to. Freshly mowed grass: some of her favorite memories were from her childhood home and the summers where she would sit on the porch reading as her father mowed the lawn. Easy. New parchment: the feeling of taking out new parchment to write on or the new book smell whenever they arrived in the library. Easier. But apples? Green apples no less. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a green apple. She preferred the taste of red ones by far.

Slughorn decided that it was best to work in pairs for this assignment, much to her dismay. Harry and Ron looked at each other then at Hermione in an unspoken battle of "who gets the good student?" Some students had begun to shift in the direction of their friends before Slughorn cleared his throat and said "sorry to disappoint you, but I've randomly selected the names from my roster before class started this morning." After an audible sigh, he started to read off names. Hermione zoned out slightly until she heard her name. "Granger and Malfoy." Slughorn looked around for a second before continuing, "looks like young Malfoy isn't here today Miss Granger so you will be working by yourself for this one." Hermione thanked Merlin as she moved to a clean work station and began setting up.

After she finished gathering her materials and the beginning of the potion base, a certain tall blonde walked into the room. A student pointed him out to Slughorn who turned to address him as he waited by the door. "Mr. Malfoy I presume. No worries about being late today but I wouldn't make it a habit in the future." Hermione snorted at this; she expects he will try to avoid this class as much as possible with the bubbly Professor Slughorn as the teacher. "You are partnered with Miss Granger at table four."

Malfoy reluctantly makes his way to the table, putting his messenger bag on the table between him and Hermione. She rolled her eyes at his childish behavior as she continued with the potion. She made no move to share the work and he had no complaints for the most part. He did, however, have a couple of comments on her techniques.

"Crush it," Draco commented offhandedly.

"What?"

"Crush the Sopophorous bean. It releases the juice better."

"But the instructions specifically say to cut it."

"I know what the instructions say, Granger. Crush it." Hermione reluctantly tried it his way, if only to shut him up, and found it much easier to use the side of the blade to crush it rather than attempting to cut it. Not that she would ever admit that to him.

After a couple more minutes of working in silence, Hermione turned to see Draco staring at her intensely. "What?" She asked

"Does your hair always get that big when you're focused?" Draco asked not batting an eye. Hermione huffed in response as she tried to ignore him. She tried to nonchalantly pat her hair down in the feeble attempts to tame it but her actions only gave more fuel to the fire that was Draco Malfoy. Seeing how much it bothered her, he continued to tease her throughout the remainder of the time it took to make the potion.

"Finally, we're done. Now to make sure it works." She leaned closer to the cauldron and wafted the smell towards her. 'Apples. Yes, I guess it worked.'

Draco leaned forward to smell the cauldron as well but scrunched his nose in response.

"What?"

"I can't smell a thing. All I can smell is your perfume. What did you do, dump the whole bottle on yourself this morning?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Malfoy, the potion is perfect. I smell exactly what I smelled with the example batch: grass, parchment, and green apples." At this point, the class had gone quiet to hear the two of them squabble. "Besides, I was in such a rush this morning I didn't put on any perfume," she stated matter-of-factly, crossing her arms across her chest.

"You're lying. I can smell it from where I'm sitting."

She was about to argue further when a realization suddenly donned on Hermione. She froze in her spot, staring at the potion in front of her. The whole class started to whisper around them.

"What's the matter with you all of a sudden?" Draco spat.

Hermione refused to look up as her cheeks burned bright red. The class's voices rose as some of the girls giggled and Mr. Slughorn beamed. Hermione saw Harry and Ron frozen in shock from the corner of her eye.

"What is wrong with all of you. What's going on?" Draco demanded.

Blaise, Draco's best friend, came up behind him and placed his arm on his shoulders with the biggest grin on his face. "That's amortentia, mate. It smells like whatever you're attracted to. And you just told the whole class it smells like Granger." The class around them giggled as Draco's face somehow grew paler.

Slughorn took this moment to come to the front of the class and speak. Clapping his hands together in front of him he said "ah, yes. There is always at least one couple each year I've assigned this potion who find true love." The class laughed and glanced at the "lovely couple." Pansy gave a big huff in the corner while angrily continuing her potion.

Neither one of them moved from their spot for the rest of the class period. Harry had won the liquid luck for the best potion. As soon as the bell rang Draco and Hermione dashed out the door in opposite directions.

+*+*+*

'Perfume? What did he mean my perfume?' Hermione was scurrying down the hallway towards the library, her main place of comfort in Hogwarts. 'It's just perfume... maybe he was mistaken. Besides its perfume, half of the girls in this school could wear the same perfume as me. Although it's a muggle perfume... that doesn't rule other muggle-born girls out though.' She dropped her cross-body bag onto the worn wood table in her usual spot at the back of the library. 'But he seemed so certain that it was mine,' she frowned.

Hermione got up from her place at the table and began roaming around the shelves, not looking for anything in particular. She stopped when she saw a familiar flash of white hair from the other side of the shelf. Remaining quiet she peeked through the bookcase. Draco and Blaise were standing in front of another library table. Well, Blaise was leaning on it while Draco was pacing back and forth, continuously running his hands through his hair. "I don't know what to do," Draco said with another tug of his blonde locks.

"It's okay mate. It's not like the world is gonna end. Besides, maybe now you'll finally accept your feelings instead of fueling them for hate." Blaise told him.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh please," Blaise rolled his eyes, "you've been in love with her for years."

Hermione held in a gasp, holding her hand to her mouth as Draco froze staring at his best friend.

"What the hell are you talking about? I didn't know I liked her until the potions class ten minutes ago. What do you mean years?" Draco asked annoyed at what he assumed was a taunt by his best friend.

"You never stop talking about her since 1st year, mate. What else am I going to think? Remember when she punched you in the face? You couldn't utter anything about her for a whole two months without blushing. And the Yule ball! I remember how you looked at her. Even Pansy saw it." Blaise said shocked at Draco's own oblivion. "She hung onto you for weeks after that, just to make sure you wouldn't 'leave her for a muggle-born,' " Blaise added in air quotes. By this point, Draco had made it back to the table and slumped down into one of the chairs. "You really didn't realize? Are you okay, mate?"

Draco just sat with his hand covering his mouth loosely as he let his elbow hold his weight on the table. After a long pause, he said, "my dad is going to kill me. What if he hears about this? What if Pansy tells her parents who tell mine. He's going to kill me. My mom won't be able to stop him this time."

Hermione gasped lightly at the insinuation. 'This time? What has his father done to him in the past? Does his father abuse him?'

"It'll be okay, Drake," Blaise said with genuine worry in his eyes. He knew how Draco's father was. He had heard the stories from Draco himself.

"No, it won't!" He said exasperated. "How can it be? He never tolerated anything with muggles or muggle-borns. Especially now that he wants me to become a ..." Draco let his voice drop off, "a death eater."

Hermione backed up a step. 'A death eater? But he's still a child. They're still children. How could his father do that to his only son?'

Blaise places a hand on his shoulder. "Don't go home."

"What?" Draco asked with genuine confusion, looking up to braise from his slouched position.

"Don't go home. You can stay at Hogwarts for Christmas. And then at the end of the year, you'll be 17. You'll be an adult in the wizarding world. And I'll talk to my mom so you can stay with us as long as you need it. We'll figure it out together, mate."

"Thanks, Blaise. I'll think about it. I don't know what I could do to repay you." Draco said happier with sadness still in his eyes.

"I have an idea. How about you talk to Granger."

"Come on, man."

"No really. I want you to be happy. I know for a fact that you two have patrols this Friday night. You were complaining about it all week."

He was right, they did have patrols. Hermione remembered complaining to Harry and Ron, who weren't listening, about it on Monday when the prefects got the schedule for the week.

"Maybe..." Draco said looked down at his shoes.

Hermione turned to leave her hiding space, back to her table. She gathered her stuff up and headed out the door. She settled herself next to the black lake to think. And boy did she have a lot to think about.

+*+*+*

Curfew had started ten minutes ago so it was time for the two prefects to meet at last. Hermione had been waiting anxiously for Friday to come for the last three days. She wasn't sure if she was scared or excited... maybe both.

Hermione has been thinking about how she felt about Draco. Before the amortemtia disaster, there had never been a question. Obviously, she hated him. Right? But now... she had to face the facts. He liked her. No matter how hard it was to grasp the idea. And now she truly didn't know how to feel. From the conversation she overheard in the library, she clearly didn't know Malfoy as well as she thought. Up until now, he had been the same twelve-year-old prick calling her derogatory terms with a constant grimace on his face.

Over the last three days, she had been sneaking glances at him across the dining hall and in classes they shared. He really didn't look like the same boy. He had grown out his hair, using less product in it, thank god. And his face was... softer. At least it looked less harsh without the smirk, despite his cheeks thinning out from the transition from kid to teen. Truth be told, he looked kind of glum. Hermione suspected it was because of his father. Despite Blaise's offer, there still was no guarantee he was free yet.

Hermione was brought out of her thoughts by the soft sound of footfall on the stone floor of the corridor. She looked up to find Malfoy approaching her slowly. Deciding he was probably nervous about his promise to Blaise she broke the ice first: "Hi." Not the most creative, but it was something.

"Hi," he returned looking down at his feet.

"Alright. I guess we should get started with patrolling..." Hermione said turning a little in the direction they should be heading. He nodded, coming up to walk beside her.

There was a long stretch of silence that neither of them seemed to want to break first. Instead, Draco reached into his robe pocket and pulled out a snack. An apple. Not just any apple, however. A green apple.

Hermione's eyes went wide as she tried to not stare at him and continued to walk. The smell of the sour fruit only confirmed what she had feared. 'Yup. That's it,' her mind helpfully communicated. She couldn't help but look over at him now. 'You idiot!' Her mind screamed at her. Now that she really thought about it, Draco Malfoy had been the only person in her life that she's seen consistently eat green apples. She associated them with him. The number of times he has casually started eating a green apple in the middle of class, much to the professors' annoyance as well as her own, or seen him across the great hall with an apple in hand. And of course, it was green the bloody Slytherin!

After a moment of staring on Hermione's part, Draco looked at her concerned. "Is this bothering you?" He asked taking the Apple away from his mouth.

"No," Hermione said hurriedly. "It's just, um, green apples..." she explained terribly.

He looked confused before realization dawned on his face. He looked down at his apple then back at her, "green apples..."

"Yeah."

"Oh."

He had forgone eating, instead just holding the half-eaten apple as they walked silently beside each other.

"So uh," he tried to start, "I know what I smelled was you... but do you think what you smelled was me?"

"Yeah. It kind of clicked just now."

"Wow. Okay."

"Okay."

"I'm sorry," Malfoy blurted out.

"What?" Hermione asked, stopping in the middle of the corridor.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, stopping too, looking down at his shoes instead of her face, "About everything. How I treated you. When we were younger, and even later. And I'm sorry I called you names. And I'm sorry I like you. You don't deserve me. You deserve someone so much better."

Heroine stood in shock for a moment before approaching him slowly until they were close enough that if she wanted to she could push the stray piece of hair flopped over his forehead back. But she didn't. Instead, her arms stayed at her side as she tried to search his face that he was determined to keep hidden. "About the stuff when we were kids... it wasn't right. It hurt. Sometimes it still hurts... but you're not the same as you were. I'm sure you aren't. You aren't perfect I'm sure, but who is?" She shifted her weight from one foot to the other nervously, "you aren't the same kid. I can see it." She tried to put as much power as she could into those words. Making them a statement. "You haven't done anything more than tease me about trivial things like the puffiness of my hair in years." She chucked at that reference to that dreaded potions class earlier that week. She could see the little quirks of his mouth betraying his smile. "I forgive you Malfoy."

Draco slowly looked up into her eyes, searching for the truth behind her words of forgiveness.

"And I don't believe you aren't good enough. My mind knows you're different, and obviously, my heart is pulled to you." Hermione said, her cheeks turning pink.

"So..." Draco said looking hopeful, "do you want to get to know each other?"

"Yeah," Hermione said smiling, "I would."

Draco smiled back at her as they continued walking down the corridor. He took another bite of his green apple.

+*+*+*

"You ready?" Draco asked with his hands in his pockets casually waiting outside Gryffindor tower's door for her.

"Yup," Hermione smiled up at him as he opened his right arm so she could lean into his side as they walked, draping his arm back around her. She leaned up and kissed the satisfied smirk on his face.

It had been half a year since the amortentia incident and their decision to get to know each other better. He confided in Hermione about the abuse his father put him through and she sat with him as he endured a painful howler from his father about what a disappointment he was after he heard about them. Draco went to Dumbledore about his father and the plans he had for him becoming a death eater. He made a good case for his mother who only ever wanted the best for Draco and never wanted him to be mixed up with the mess that was his father's purist beliefs. He told him about the plans for his murder and how the Death Eaters planned on getting into the castle. Dumbledore helped him work out the separation of Draco from his father and welcomed him to join the fight against Voldemort.

So here he stood with his girlfriend Hermione Granger, on his way to Hogsmeade to share a glorious moment of peace before the storm they knew would be coming up ahead. But they would face that storm together. And that's all the mattered.


End file.
